Commentary on “A History of Twentieth-Century American Academic ” by Robert McMaster and Susanna McMaster Sara Irina Fabrikant

KEYWORDS: History of cartography ; thematic cartography , 20th century cartography , Germany, Austria, Switzerland

n their contribution to the recent specia l issue Sara Irina Fabrikant is an Assistant Professor at the of Cartography and Geographic Information Department of Geography, University of California Santa Barbara, Science on “Exploratory Essays: History of Ellison Hall 3611, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, U.S.A. E-mail: ICartography in the T wentieth Century” (V ol. 29, . No. 3, pp. 305-321), McMaster and McMaster make the claim that “ a lthough the main de vel- Germany, Austria, or Switzerland in their list of opment of thematic mapping can be traced to countries with “very rich cartographic acti vity” (p. nineteenth-century Europe, it is in the twentieth- 305). By only broadly sketching the recent history century United States that thematic cartography of academic cartography in German-speaking evolved as an academic discip line” (p. 306). In this nations (i.e., Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), commentary, I will argue and pro vide evidence for one can show that the McMasters ’ statement is the idea that fundamenta l contributions to the factually wrong. Although the authors assert their development of academic thematic cartography exclusive focus on the history of academic cartog- were made in Europe, and that these de velopments raphy only in the U.S., it is informati ve to compare occurred ear lier than those imp lied by McMaster that history to the history in the German-speaking and McMaster in the U.S. In other words , I intend nations, as those nations form a homogeneous unit to show that the McMasters ’ conclusion is a serious in terms of cartographic research and teaching overstatement , possibly a blatant misstatement . activities, due to their shared language and simi lar Unfortunately this is not the first time such an academic practices . inaccurate statement has been made in a U.S. pub- Key cartographers in Germany at the turn of the lication; such statements are sometimes regrettab ly 20th century—the McMasters ’ “incipient period” recited as recei ved wisdom by others .1 Appearing (p. 306: a period dominated by few key individu- as it does in a specia l issue on the history of 20th als teaching at academic institutions )—were A. century cartography , the claim by McMaster and Hettner (Heidelberg, with cartographic pub lica- McMaster deser ves to be elaborated further and tions as ear ly as 1901 and 1910); A. Penck, R. supported by e vidence, as it is an important yet Kiepert, and W. Behrmann (Berlin); M. Eckert and doubtful assertion. F. Ratzel (Leipzig); and H. Wagner (Göttingen). The statement by the McMasters is comparati ve Max Groll received a lecturer position in cartog- in nature, but no factua l comparisons are pro vided raphy at the Berlin University in 1902. He is well to support the c laim. The authors ac knowledge known for a two- volume cartography te xtbook the existence of academic cartography outside the published in paperbac k format. This textbook, U.S. (p. 305), but they do not e laborate on that which was updated se veral times and e xtended point. Two cartographers on the ad visory board in 1970 by G. Hake, has been a standard te xt in for the specia l issue are from German-speak- academic cartography e ver since (currently in ing nations , yet the McMasters do not inc lude its 8th edition, Hake et al., 2002). In Austria, K.

1 “Academic study of design did not emerge as a scientific discipline until after the second World War (McMaster and Thrower (1987)”, quoted from Buttenfield and Mackaness (1991, p. 429).

Cartography and Geographic , Vol. 30, No. 1, 2003, pp. 81-84 Peucker (educated in Berlin and Breslau) started for on socio-demographic and economic his academic career in cartography at the “Wiener (industrial) developments, as well as for identifying Hochschule für Welthandel” (“Vienna University locations of natura l resources, typically published for World Trade”) in 1910. Peucker wrote inf luen- in regional and nationa l atlases. These develop- tial works on theoretic (thematic) cartography and ments were not e xclusive to the German-speak- is known for his editorship on many at lases that ing countries . Important academic cartographic include thematic maps . works in this respect were the Russian at lases Despite WWI, thematic cartography de veloped (1851, 1869-1873, 1914) and the So viet atlas further at many academic institutions in the publications by Baranskij (1929-31). Baranskij German-speaking nations . The contributions of started lecturing on “ economic cartography” at Max Eckert’s Kartenwissenschaft (1921/25), dis- the Geography Department of the University of cussed in Monte llo’s article in the same specia l Moscow in 1932. Arkadi Preobrazenskij’s textbook issue of CAGIS, is better known to English-speak- on “Economic Cartography ,” showcasing much of ing cartographers than the contributions of the Baranskij’s cartography princip les, appeared in scholars cited abo ve, as some of his writings ha ve Russian in 1953, and was trans lated into German been translated (e.g., Joerg 1977). In Zürich, in 1956. Preobrazenskij’s text, together with the Eduard Imhof founded in 1925 at the Swiss British cartography te xtbook by Monkhouse and Federal Institute of Techno logy (ETHZ) what was Wilkinson (1952), were the two main te xtbooks for most probab ly the world’s first academic cartog- thematic cartography instruction in the German- raphy department . Among other things , Imhof ’s speaking countries before the 1960s. Interestingly, research dea lt with developing the Swiss High Preobrazenskij traces the dasymetric mapping tech- School and Secondary Schoo l atlases, and later nique back to the Russian cartographer Semeno v- the Swiss National Atlas. As early as 1923 he was Tjan-Sanskij (1922, cited in Preobrazenskij 1956: lecturing on cartographic design , and his “ the- 40). Dasymetric mapping is often fa lsely attributed matic cartography” course began in the summer of to J. K. Wright in the U.S., although Wright (1936) 1954, at the ETHZ. Imhof would later become the acknowledged its Russian roots . Another notab le first president of the Internationa l Cartographic and early European contribution to the thematic Association (1961-64). Imhof also taught inter- mapper’s toolbox is the value-by-area cartogram . national courses in cartography at the ETHZ in Hermann Haac k and H. Wiechel published a car- 1957 and 1960. He participated in the Second togram depicting e lection resu lts from the German Internationa l Cartographic Conference (Rand Reichstag in 1903 (cited in Eckert 1925). McNally Conference ) in Evanston, Illinois, in 1958, Aside from the estab lished cartography centers which the McMasters mention in their artic le. in Berlin (A. Penck, at this point joined by N. Krebs The occurr ence of two wor ld wars in Europe and E. Tiessen), Vienna (E. Peucker), and Zürich during the first ha lf of the 20th century wi ll always be (E. Imhof), new cartography programs emerged a major factor to consider when ma king any historic after WWI in Frankfurt am Main (W. Behrmann), comparisons between the U.S. and European coun- Breslau (W. Geisler), Greifswald (W. Witt), Halle tries. Academic de velopments in cartography in the (O. Schülter), and Hannover (N. Creutzburg). The German-speaking countries wer e se verely impacted first cartographic society in Germany was founded by the two wor ld wars, especially in Germany and in 1937, with participants from academia , govern- Austria. The wars were probab ly one reason why the ment, and the map-pub lishing sector . Although sheer volume of academic acti vity (totals of institu- academic cartography in Germany and Austria tions and peop le involved) is smaller in terms of was under Nazi control during WWII (and thus absolute numbers than in the U.S. (of course, raw confined to war-re lated activities), theoretica l figures shou ld be population- or institution-weighted cartographic pub lications continued to appear for comparison ). But in spite of the wars , the qualita- in academic journals (e.g., on classification , color, tive impacts of European thematic cartography on map types) such as the Jahrbuch der Kartographie academia are considerab le in terms of research para- (“Yearbook of Cartography”) published in 1941-2. digms and particu lar research foci such as (but not After the war , academic cartography programs limited to) map design , semiology, map semantics , were first reinstated in Germany in Bonn and generalization, and map perception and cognition in Hannover (E. Meynen, K. Brüning, and W. (as shown, for example, in the Monte llo article in the Witt), and developed rapidly elsewhere after that . special issue). New cartographic societies were subse quently Until WWII, academic thematic cartography founded in Germany (1952), Austria (1961), and evolved in Europe as a resu lt of the increased need Switzerland (1969). One of the ma jor cartographic

82 Cartography and Geographic Information Science conferences in the German-speaking countries impediments to any history is the potentia l danger is the “Deutscher Kartographen T ag” (“German of linguistic fragmentation . To overcome the pit- Cartographer Day”), which has ta ken place since falls of the language barrier , it becomes crucia l to 1952. The term “ thematische Karte” (“thematic access key publications in their origina l language map”) was coined by N. Creutzburg at the first and not to re ly solely on translated sources . Many “Kartographen T ag” meeting . The major journal important contributions ha ve not been trans lated for academic cartography in the German-speaking into the current dominant academic language countries is the Kartographische Nachrichten , pub- (English), but that does not mean they do not e xist. lished since 1951. Bertin is on ly one classic example of this prob lem A series of thematic cartography te xtbooks (original in French in 1967, translated into German written in German appeared in the late 1960s: in 1974, into English in 1983). Imhof ’s work is “Thematic Cartography” by E. Arnberger (1966), another good e xample. He is most ly known in the “Thematic Cartography” by W. Witt (1967), U.S. for relief representation and label placement, “Thematic Cartography” by E. Imhof (1972)—to because this wor k has been trans lated into English. name just a few. Unfortunately, none of them were His key contributions on thematic cartography ever translated into English. The first edition (not only the 1972 textbook) are virtually unknown of the “Internationa l Yearbook of Cartography” in the U.S. because they ha ve not been trans lated. (edited by E. Imhof) appeared in 1961. The edito- Finally, one might c laim that thematic cartog- rial board featured about 10 European cartogra- raphy did not reach the status of a “discip line” phers and on ly one U.S. scholar, A. H. Robinson. early on in Europe. However, a discipline is more Another issue to consider when comparing U.S. than a group of peop le working at U.S. academic and European academic cartography programs institutions . Research paradigms , scholarly activi- is that unlike in the U.S., academic cartography ties (e.g., academic journals, conferences , society programs in Europe can be found at either engi- meetings), and educationa l practices disseminated neering schoo ls or universities, each with differ- through textbooks also contribute to a discip line, ent research foci . True European specia lties are but these are omitted from the McMasters ’ dis- Ph.D.-granting cartography departments and cussion. I have shown abo ve that these kinds of applied-science schoo ls (i.e., “Fachhochschu len”) activities were in p lace and well developed in the granting Masters degrees in cartography , as well German-speaking countries as ear ly as, or even as trade-schoo l-like academic programs for cartog- earlier than, in the U.S. raphy apprenticeships . Cartography departments An article on the history of 20th century cartog- are typically associated with engineering schoo ls raphy may focus on on ly one part of the wor ld, be and thus ha ve a more app lied focus. These schoo ls limited to academic institutions and scho lars, and form independent academic units , as opposed only rely on works published in one language. to the cartography programs with a theoretica l However, some claims are more important than emphasis within geography departments at uni- others. Obviously, when important c laims are versities. Examples of European cartography made, we all want them to be as accurate as pos- centers are the ETH Zürich (founded by Imhof sible. in 1925), ITC Enschede (1950), FU Berlin (1964), and TU Dresden2 (founded by Pillewizer in 1959). The number of cartography programs within ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS geography departments in the German-speaking I would like to thank Ferjan Ormeling, Ingrid countries, including their professors and gradu- Kretschmer, and Daniel Montello for their valu- ates, would be too large for this paper to list. able time and feedbac k while preparing this com- The main point of this commentary is not to mentary. I am especia lly indebted to Ulrich Freitag argue who was doing what , when, and where first who generous ly shared with me his profound in academic cartography . Academics are in the knowledge on the recent history of German aca- “business of ideas ,” and it is we ll known that ideas demic cartography . This allowed me to under line are not generated in a vacuum but often appear in with factua l evidence the important ro le European different parts of the wor ld more or less simultane- academic cartography (definitely including the- ously, sometimes being inf luenced by schoo ls of matic cartography ) has, in fact, played in the 20th thought, sometimes in iso lation. One of the ma jor century.

2 Eidegenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich (“Swiss Federal Institute of Technology”), International Training Centre for Aerial Survey (ITC) Enschede, Freie Universität (FU) Berlin (“Free University Berlin”), Technische Universität (TU) Dresden (“Technical University Dresden”).

Vol. 30, No. 1 83 BIBLIOGRAPHY Hettner, A. 1910. Die Eigenschaften und Methoden Arnberger, E. 1966. Handbuch der thematischen der kartographischen Darstellung. Geographische Kartographie. Wien, Austria: Deutike. Zeitschrift 16: 73-82. Buttenfield, B.P., and W.A. Mackaness. 1991. McMaster, R.B., and S. McMaster. 2002. A history of . In: D. Maguire, M.F. Goodchild, and D. twentieth-century American academic cartography . Rhind (eds), Geographical information systems : Principles Cartography and Geographic Information Science 29 (3): and applications. New York, New York: John Wiley & 305-21. Sons. pp. 427-44. McMaster, R.B., and N.J. Thrower. 1987. University car- Eckert, M. 1921/25. Die Kartenwissenschaft. Berlin/New tographic education in the United States : Tracing the York: DeGruyter. routes. Proceedings, 13th Internationa l Cartographic Eckert M. (translated by W. Joerg) 1977. On the nature of Association (ICA) Conference , Morelia, Mexico. pp. maps and map logic. In: L. Guelke (ed), The Nature 343-59. of Cartographic Communication . Cartographica, Monkhouse, F.J., and H.R. Wilkinson. 1952. Maps & Monograph 19. pp. 1-7. : Their compilation and constr uction. London, Imhof, E. 1972. Thematische Kartographie. Berlin/New U.K.: Methuen & Co Ltd. York: DeGruyter. Montello, D.R. 2002. Cognitive map-design research Haack, H., and H. Wiechel. 1903. Kartogramm zur in the 20th century: Theoretica l and empirica l Reichstagswahl. 2 Wahlkarten des Deutschen Reiches approaches. Cartography and Geographic Information in alter und neuer Darstellung mit politisch-statis- Science 29 (3): 283-304. tischen Begleitworten und kartographischen Preobrazenskij, A.I. 1956. Ökonomische Kartographie. Erläuterungen, Gotha. (Cited in Eckert, M. 1925. Gotha, Germany: VEB Hermann Haac k. Die Kartenwissenschaft. Berlin/Leipzig, Germany: Witt, W. 1967. Thematische Kartographie : Methoden DeGruyter. p. 150) und Probleme, Tendenzen und Aufgaben . Hannover, Hake, G., D. Grünreich, and L. Meng. 2002. Kartographie. Germany: Jänecke. Visualisierung raum-zeitlicher Informationen (8. Auflage). Wright, J.K. 1936. A method of mapping densi- Berlin/New York: DeGruyter. ties of popu lation with Cape Cod as an e xample. Hettner, A. 1901. Über die Untersuchung und Geographical Review 26: 103-110. Darstellung der Bevölkerungsdichte . Geographische Zeitschrift 7: 498-514.

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